The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for modern hardware, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the Intel Arc B570 provides a clear picture of its capabilities, revealing a configuration that is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, contextualizes it against rival components, and explains the roles of the CPU and GPU in shaping the final results.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo offers a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the most fluid experience is achieved with the Low preset, which delivers an average of 121 FPS. This is the only setting at this resolution that pushes frame rates past the 120 FPS mark, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. However, for a more balanced experience that maintains high visual fidelity without a severe performance penalty, the High preset is a strong candidate, producing an average of 80 FPS. This is a significant drop from Low but still provides smooth gameplay.

The Medium preset offers a middle ground, with an average of 93 FPS and a minimum of 79 FPS, ensuring that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains above 75 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, brings the average down to 62 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the game's strain on the system. For the best experience measured, the High preset at 1080p appears to be the sweet spot, providing a 60% improvement over the Ultra preset's average FPS while still offering a substantial visual upgrade over the Low preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance landscape changes. The Low preset remains the fastest, with an average of 79 FPS, but the High preset drops to 52 FPS. This makes the High preset a less comfortable choice for competitive play, though it remains acceptable for a story-driven RPG. The Medium preset, with an average of 61 FPS and a minimum of 52 FPS, is the most balanced option at this resolution. It maintains a frame rate that is consistently above 50 FPS, which is generally considered the threshold for smooth, playable performance in a game like this. The Ultra preset falls to 41 FPS, which begins to feel sluggish and is not recommended for a consistently responsive experience.

At 3840x2160, the Arc B570 is pushed to its limits. No preset achieves an average of 60 FPS. The Low preset is the only playable option, with an average of 44 FPS. The Medium preset averages 33 FPS, and the High preset drops to 29 FPS. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable, with an average of just 22 FPS. Based on this data, the recommended preset for this combo is High at 1080p for the best balance of visual quality and performance, with Medium at 1440p serving as a viable alternative for users with higher-resolution monitors.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary driver of frame rates in The Technomancer, as evidenced by the significant performance scaling across settings and resolutions. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it may become a limiting factor at 4K, where the demand for memory bandwidth and capacity increases substantially.

The GPU's clock speeds are locked at a base and boost of 2500 MHz. This consistent clock speed means that the performance differences seen in the data are almost entirely due to the workload imposed by different settings and resolutions, rather than dynamic clock fluctuations. The Arc B570's raw compute power is delivered through 2304 shading units, which contribute to its 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This level of compute power is what allows the card to achieve 80 FPS at High settings in 1080p, but it is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the pixel count quadruples.

The data shows a clear correlation between GPU load and frame rate. At 1080p Low, the GPU is not fully taxed, resulting in 121 FPS. As settings are increased to Ultra, the GPU works harder, and the frame rate drops to 62 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck, as even the Low preset only manages 44 FPS. This indicates that the Arc B570 has a performance ceiling that is reached well before the 4K resolution, making it a card that is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in this title. The GPU's performance is comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which has an average score of 20534, and the Intel Arc A750, with an average score of 20582, according to its benchmark data.

How This Combo Ranks

When looking at the overall performance of this specific CPU and GPU combination in The Technomancer, the data places it at rank 2256 out of 2825 tested combos. This puts it in the bottom 20% of all configurations tested. This ranking is a crucial indicator that while the individual components are competent, their combined performance in this particular game is not exceptional.

The combo's rank is likely influenced by the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions, as well as the game's engine and its utilization of hardware. The CPU, an Intel Core Ultra 5 235, is a strong performer in its own right, with an average benchmark score of 46062 and a percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs. This suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. However, the combo's overall rank in the game suggests that the GPU is holding back the system's potential.

The ranking data provides a relative measure of performance. Being ranked 2256 out of 2825 means that a significant number of other CPU/GPU pairings deliver better performance in The Technomancer. This is not to say the combo is poor; it is perfectly capable of running the game at 1080p and 1440p. However, it is not a top-tier configuration for this specific title, and users seeking the highest frame rates or 4K capabilities would need to look at more powerful hardware. The GPU's average benchmark score of 20556 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, which is a solid mid-range standing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a comprehensive view of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and Intel Arc B570's performance across a matrix of settings and resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo performs admirably. The Low preset yields the highest average FPS at 121. The Medium preset delivers an average of 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS, showing a stable performance window. The High preset produces an average of 80 FPS, which is a solid result for high-fidelity gaming. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, brings the average down to 62 FPS. This shows a clear and consistent performance scaling from Low to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops are noticeable but expected. The Low preset averages 79 FPS, a significant drop from its 1080p counterpart. The Medium preset averages 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. This is a playable range, though the minimum frame rate suggests occasional dips. The High preset averages 52 FPS, which is at the edge of what is considered smooth. The Ultra preset averages 41 FPS, making it a less desirable option for a consistent experience.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. The Low preset is the only option that stays above 40 FPS, with an average of 44 FPS. The Medium preset averages 33 FPS, with a minimum of 28 FPS and a maximum of 39 FPS. The High preset averages 29 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages just 22 FPS. These results clearly indicate that the 4K resolution is too demanding for this particular GPU when paired with this CPU for The Technomancer.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. This scaling is a key indicator of where the system's bottleneck lies.

Comparing the High preset across resolutions, the average FPS drops from 80 at 1080p to 52 at 1440p, a decrease of 35%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 52 to 29, a further decrease of 44%. From 1080p to 4K, the total drop is from 80 FPS to 29 FPS, a 64% reduction. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. As the resolution increases, the GPU must render more pixels, which directly increases the load on its shading units and memory subsystem.

The Low preset shows a similar, though slightly less severe, trend. At 1080p, it averages 121 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 79 FPS (a 35% decrease), and at 4K, it falls to 44 FPS (a 44% decrease from 1440p). The fact that the frame rates scale so dramatically with resolution, even on the Low preset, strongly suggests that the Intel Arc B570's compute and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see more consistent frame rates across resolutions, as the CPU's workload does not change as significantly with resolution. The 64% reduction in FPS from 1080p to 4K at High settings is a clear sign that the GPU is being pushed to its absolute limit at higher pixel counts.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 4K resolution smoothly?

A: No. The measured data shows that even at the Low preset, the average frame rate at 3840x2160 is only 44 FPS. At the High and Ultra presets, the average frame rates drop to 29 and 22 FPS, respectively, which is well below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best setting to use for a high-refresh-rate monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset is the only one that achieves an average frame rate above 120 FPS at 1920x1080, with a result of 121 FPS. This would be the best choice for a 120Hz or 144Hz display.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570's performance compare to its direct rivals?

A: According to its benchmark scores, the Arc B570's average score of 20556 is very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, +0.1%) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, -0.1%). It is also slightly ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, +0.4%) and behind the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, -0.5%).

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the main bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe (e.g., 80 FPS to 29 FPS on High settings), which is a classic sign of a GPU-limited system. The CPU's high percentile ranking (89th) and benchmark scores suggest it is not the limiting factor.

Q: What is the highest graphical preset that maintains an average FPS above 60 at 1440p?

A: None of the tested presets achieve an average FPS above 60 at 2560x1440. The Medium preset comes closest with an average of 61 FPS, while the Low preset averages 79 FPS, and the High preset drops to 52 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested configurations?

A: The combo is ranked 2256 out of 2825 tested combinations in The Technomancer. This places it in the lower percentile of all tested systems, indicating that many other CPU and GPU pairings deliver better performance in this specific game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It operates at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and can boost up to 5.00 GHz. This high boost clock is crucial for gaming, as it ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is often the primary requirement for game logic and physics. The CPU's benchmark data supports this, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and a multi-core score of 14769.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle the game's simulation. The data suggests that the Core Ultra 5 235 is more than capable of this task at 1080p and 1440p. The fact that frame rates scale so heavily with resolution indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as a CPU bottleneck would manifest as similar frame rates regardless of resolution.

However, the CPU's performance is not entirely irrelevant. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help to reduce latency and improve data throughput, which can be beneficial in open-world areas or scenes with many NPCs. The CPU's average benchmark score of 46062 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, and it performs nearly identically to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (deltaPct of 0.1) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (deltaPct of -0.1). This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 235 has ample processing power to support the Arc B570 in this game. Its 14 threads ensure that background tasks and modern game engines that utilize multiple cores are handled effectively, but the measured FPS demonstrates that the GPU remains the dominant force in determining overall game performance.